Episode 1610 - Dancing in the Grotto
The tenth episode of Season 16 of Hell’s Kitchen aired on Fox, on December 16, 2016. On that episode, the second team switch occurred, sliders were the main dish, both teams had terrible performances at dinner service, and a shocking double elimination took place. Intro While going back to the dorms, Heather stated that there was no fucking way she was going into the blue team as she did not want to support or carry them through the rest of the competition. However, Heidi believed that she was a strong leader, and that she could probably lead the blue team to victory, before volunteering herself as she knew how to get through to Shaina. Then, Andrew said that his choice was either between Heidi and Ryan, but while the latter refused to go to the blue team, he told her that she could look fucking good if she led them strongly. Secretly, Andrew knew that Ryan was his biggest competition, and it would be good for his own game if she was gone. While Heather voted for Ryan, Matt voted for Heidi to go into the blue team, leaving Kimberly as the tiebreaker. Team switch The next day, both teams came downstairs, and Ramsay told the blue team that he asked the red team to name one volunteer to join their team in order to make them stronger, and while Devin hoped for either Heidi or Ryan as they were strong in challenges, he wanted the latter more because she was hot. After Ramsay asked the red team who was going into the blue team, Ryan announced that she was going, and after receiving her new blue jacket, Ryan believed that if she could lead a weak team into one dinner service, she would look good. Team challenge After, Ramsay explained how food evolved in many ways, showing an example with burgers from a normal burger into an Unami burger, Office burger, his signature Chanterelle burger, and finally sliders, though Kimberly revealed that she wanted a full mouth for larger meat, before claiming that she meant burger meat. For the Creative Slider Challenge, each team would create different plates of sliders with seafood, lamb, poultry, beef, and pork, and had the team discuss what protein they wanted to work with. While Heidi wanted to work with seafood as she was from Maine, Matt wanted it as it was his thing, before declaring that he did not give a fuck what his teammates thought of him. Eventually, the red team allowed Matt to cook with seafood, but Heidi hoped that it would turn out good. After discussing, Ramsay led them outside to the front entrance, and revealed that they would have to collect their remaining ingredients in a bouncy ball pit, though Matt pointed out that this was not a five-year-old birthday party. Then, Ramsay explained that each chef would slide down the slide into the ball pit, and collect an ingredient with their team color on them. Each team had 40 minutes to not only collect their balls, but also cook their sliders in the same time limit. Matt and Ryan were up first to collect their ingredients, and while the former picked onion, the latter picked pancetta. As the chefs continued to collect their ingredients, Andrew remarked that his ten-year-old son would love the bounce house, before tripping over while going on the bounce house. Ten minutes after the challenge began, the blue team collected their ingredients, and they raced back into the blue kitchen to begin cooking, while Heather told Andrew to stop wasting time as they were losing time. After much searching, Andrew managed to find Greek yogurt, and the red team raced back into the kitchen with only 27 minutes left in the challenge. During the cooking, Matt decided to revolutionize his slider to stand out from the rest. Two minutes left in the challenge, Heidi was scraping off the burnt parts on her buns in order to get her sliders accepted. Eventually, both teams got their dishes cooked and plated on time. The guest judges were Adam Fleischman, Sang Yoo, which impressed Andrew as he was a burger master, and Season 10 winner Christina, which excited Heidi to see her. The seafood round was up first, and Matt and Paulie presented their dishes. Matt’s shrimp roll with chipotle aioli was criticized for not being what they were looking for, but he argued that it was a slider and not a roll dish like Christina said that it was. An annoyed Heidi told Matt to calm down and listen as the judges knew what they were doing, said that his dish was not a slider, and Ramsay snarkily asked Matt if he would make a lobster patty if he asked him for a lobster roll. Then, Matt argued that he was doing something different, and that his team knew what he was doing without speaking up about it, but Heidi told Ramsay that had she gotten seafood, she would have done a better job. After, the dish itself was criticized for being too spicy, and having wilty greens, but Matt arrogantly brushed off their criticisms as they ran burger joints. Then, Paulie’s salmon and shrimp sliders with cumin and sriracha were praised for having the seafood be the star, he scored that round, and the blue team led 1-0, though Matt arrogantly brushed it off. On the beef round, Shaina’s breakfast slider with scrambled eggs was criticized for not conveying the idea of breakfast, with Christina saying that she would rather have a cracked egg instead, while Heather’s truffle rosemary beef slider was praised for having the tomato element standing out, and for the choice of a pretzel bun. So, Heather scored that round, and the score was tied at 1 each. On the poultry round, Heidi’s cilantro chicken slider with pepper jack and Dijon vinegar sauce was praised for being lovely, and she was excited that Christina loved her food. After, Devin’s barbecue Dijon slider was criticized for being overcooked despite having nice seasoning, Heidi scored that round, and the red team led 2-1. On the pork round, Wendy’s Italian styled pork slider with parmesan crisp was criticized for uneven flavors, and having dry pork, while Kimberly’s Asian style pork slider with hoisin ginger sauce was criticized for having too much ginger in it, and having a dreadful meaty texture. Despite that, both Wendy and Kimberly tied that round, and the red team led 3-2. On the final round, Andrew and Ryan presented their lamb sliders, and the latter presented her spicy lamb slider. The dish was praised for having a cucumber element, but criticized for lacking a yogurt element, which pumped Andrew as he had yogurt on his dish. However, while Andrew’s spice rubbed pork slider with chimichurri was praised for having the yogurt element, it was criticized for a flat tasting lamb. In the end, Ryan won that round, and the score was tied at 3 each. To break the tie, the judges went with the best dish overall, and after a quick discussion, they went with Heidi’s sliders, the red team won the challenge, and she was excited that her dish won the challenge. Reward The red team was rewarded with a day at the Playboy mansion, which excited Andrew as it was every little boy’s fantasy, and Heidi called it amazing as she idolized Playboy in every single way. During the reward, the red team rode in a limousine over to the mansion, and Matt recalled his first Playboy when he was ten years old, and called it his bucket list. At the mansion, the red team met with Crystal Hefner, and Andrew called it fucking amazing to see Playboy bunnies in person, before calling it the best day of his life. Then, Heather said that she saw the mansion in movies and pornos, before saying that she never thought she would be there in person, before calling it amazing. Later, the red team were in the grotto, and Matt decided to flirt with the Playboy bunnies by dancing, although Kimberly said that she could have gone without the twerking. Punishment The blue team was punished by cleaning up trash at the LA River, and while Ramsay told them that it was a rewarding punishment, Ryan was immediately regretting her decision about joining the blue team, before saying that it fucking sucked. During the punishment, Wendy was the only one that did not complain as she was an environmentalist, and believed that if they did not take care of the planet, they would die. However, Wendy’s constant chatter annoyed Ryan, and Devin said that he could care less to hear somebody while picking up trash. However, Devin noted that despite the punishment and Wendy’s chatter, he felt that it was cool to do something for the community, and believed that it added karma. Before service Later that day, both teams began prepping for service, and while Heather notice that Andrew took her parrying knife from her kit, he found that the person who was using it was dull, which Matt called him fucking crazy for that. In the blue kitchen, Ryan asked everybody how they were doing on prepping, but annoyed Paulie said that he would rather stick toothpicks in his ears than listen to her any longer. After, Ramsay asked Marino to open Hell’s Kitchen. Dinner service Crystal Hefner was in attendance that night, and the chef's tables were also booked with Melissa Rivers and Drew Scott eating in the blue kitchen, and Johnathon Scott and Ashley Greene were eating in the red kitchen. After receiving their first order, Ryan wanted to make her first night with the blue team to go well as she wanted to show Ramsay what she was capable of, but her slow performance on the crab cakes annoyed Wendy as they were supposed to go up along with Paulie’s carbonara. Then, Ryan’s crab cakes turned out to be stone cold, and a smug Paulie said that only Ryan was her biggest fan. In the red kitchen, the red team received the chef tables order first, and Matt knew that there was nowhere to hide as the numbers were dwindling. However, most of the red team was on appetizers, and Matt was pissed as there were already two people there, and that Kimberly was not helping him out with fish. Then, Ramsay discovered that Matt sent up an overcooked lobster tail that was curled up, but the latter grabbed it and went back to his station in the middle of his lecture, only for a pissed Ramsay to drag him back and warn him that he was running out of patience. In the blue kitchen, Ryan’s refire was accepted, and the blue team was pushing out appetizers. Now moving onto entrées, Shaina needed more time on her garnishes, but that annoyed Devin as he needed her to move her ass, with even Ramsay ordering the blue team to speed up. Then, Shaina sent up beans that were too watery, and Ramsay sent it back to her station. 30 minutes into service, Matt was working on the lobster tail refire, but when Heather told him to drop his ego, he retorted to watch how she dressed her salads, only for Andrew to yell at them to stop arguing. Then, Kimberly remarked that she felt like an ass to be performing poorly in front of famous people, and Ramsay brought them into the pantry room, before asking them what was going on. While Matt claimed that he was not receiving help from his teammates, the red team argued that he should have asked for help, and Ramsay told them to work it out there instead of in front of the chef's table. As Matt and Heather continued to argue about their situation, Andrew tried to calm them down, and Kimberly suggested that they start over as Andrew told them that it was about the guests, and not their ego. Now forced to start over, Heather offered to help Matt out, but he rudely refused it as he wanted to do his own thing. Then, Heidi sent up a risotto that was bland and disgusting, and after ranting about their constant mistakes, Ramsay threatened to kick the red team out if they committed one more mistake. In the blue kitchen, Shaina rebounded from her earlier mistakes, and the blue team received the chef's table’s order. However, Wendy did not answer Ramsay’s question for a time on the entrées, and Ryan accused her of getting frazzled really easy, before asking how Wendy could go far in the culinary industry without multi-tasking. Then, Wendy served pink chicken, Devin groaned that it was the same old story with them, and Ramsay reminded her that it was for the chef's table. 45 minutes into service, the red kitchen’s chef’s table finally received their appetizers, and the red team were able to push out appetizers. Now moving onto entrées, Andrew knew that despite a couple of hiccups, the only thing they could do was move forward. However, while Matt said that he was ready on his fish, Kimberly announced that she needed three more minutes on garnishes, much to Matt’s annoyance as his fish would turn out overcooked because of that. However, while Kimberly argued that she was doing her best to manage her garnish lad, she sent up dry beans, and a pissed Ramsay made good on his warning by kicking them out of the kitchen, before telling them to name two people for elimination. In the blue kitchen, Wendy served her chicken refire, it was accepted, and the blue team was able to serve the chefs table. While Wendy was happy to see the people in front of them eating, Devin knew that they had no room for error for big mistakes. While Devin’s sea bass was good, Wendy’s New York striploin was overcooked, and Paulie accused her of tanking them, before saying that the steak looked like it was cooked on a Tuesday. That was the final straw for Ramsay who kicked the blue team out of the kitchen, asked them to nominate two people for elimination, and Devin was pissed that they had people who could not hold up their stations by themselves, before being disappointed that they were still getting kicked out by the tenth dinner service. Post-mortem Back at the dorms, Paulie asked how he could be considered as a nominee, and Ryan told him that he could have focused more that night, before reminding Wendy on how she did not respond to anybody’s questions. However, Wendy felt like choking Ryan as, despite the latter pointing out other people’s flaws, she did not recognize her own, just as Ryan reminded Shaina about her slow performance on garnish. Then, Paulie reminded Ryan about her cold crab cakes earlier that night, but she argued that it was not a good enough reason for her to be nominated, Paulie told her that she was not as good as she thought she was. On the red side, Matt reminded his teammates how he was left alone on fish when there were four on appetizers and that nobody offered to help him, but Kimberly and Heather reminded him that there was no communication from him, and told Matt to stop blaming everybody else for his mistakes. Then, Matt challenged the red team to nominate him as he did not care, but an annoyed Kimberly compared him to a six-year-old in a 26-year-old for refusing to acknowledge his mistakes, and when the two argued, Heather broke it up. When Andrew told Matt to vote on his nominees, the latter continued to bring up how Kimberly did not help him out despite being close to him, and that led to another argument between the two. Elimination When both teams came downstairs, Ramsay used the word dysfunctional, to sum up that night’s service. Heather announced Matt as the red team’s first nominee, with Kimberly as the second, and Paulie announced Wendy as the blue team’s first nominee, with Shaina as the second. During their pleas, Wendy claimed that she has been fighting back in the competition despite being quiet, but Ramsay reminded her that being quiet is not the sign of fighting back. Then, Shaina said that she was a strong cook, had a good palate, and continued to fight back, while Kimberly said that she had a good palate while being a hard worker. Then, Ramsay called Matt’s performance fragmented for arguing in front of the chef's table, which embarrassed the red team, but while he admitted he had a bad night, he believed that he was a good team player and communicated well. However, Heidi told Ramsay that Matt had an attitude that made him hard to work with, but Matt said that it was hard to work with incompetence. After a tough decision, Shaina was eliminated for her declining performances despite her strong performance at the start of the competition. During her exit interview, Shaina called the competition the hardest thing she fought for in her life, and was proud to show her daughters how far she went through in the competition. After Shaina left, Ramsay announced that he was not done yet, sent Kimberly and Wendy back in line, and eliminated Matt for his poor attitude, and refusal to admit to his mistakes. Before leaving, Ramsay told Matt that while he pointed fingers at everybody when things went bad, the only person that needed to be pointed at was himself. During his exit interview, Matt was pissed that he got eliminated over what he believed to be one poor service when everybody else fucked up that night, felt that he got nothing but disrespect during his time in the competition, and threatened to beat up Ramsay if the latter talked down to him in the streets. After Matt left, Ramsay warned both teams that he would not tolerate another service like that ever again, and while being dismissed, Kimberly was thankful over still being in the competition, while Heidi called it intense that a double elimination occurred, before saying that she was one step closer to winning. Then, Wendy knew that she had to get out her lone wolf mentality and become part of the pack. Ramsay's comment: "Both kitchens performed horrendously tonight. I'm hoping that by eliminating Matt and Shaina, both teams will finally have a chance at success." Shaina and Matt received the coat hanging and burning picture sequence at the same time. Category:Episodes Category:Season 16